YEREVAN, November 27. /ARKA/. The Armenian government ended the first 9 months of 2023 with a surplus of 74.6 billion drams, Deputy Finance Minister Vahan Sirunyan said today, when speaking at a meeting of the parliamentary committee on financial and budget issues.

He recalled that the government had planned for that time span a budget deficit of 248.4 billion drams.

The deputy minister specified that the government collected 1 trillion 708 billion drams in revenue, which is 13.8% more than in the same period of 2022.  Expenditures amounted to 1 trillion 633 billion drams, which is 17.2% more than in 2022.

The budget execution rate was 84.6%, down from 86.6% in the first 9 months of 2022, according to the deputy minister,

Sirunyan also noted that 1 trillion 617 billion drams were collected in the first 9 months as taxes and duties, which is 99.9% of the planned rate. Capital expenditure rate was 57.4%, down from 63.2% in 2022.  

Sirunyan said also that the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs accounted for most of the expenditures - about AMD 507 billion. The Defense Ministry's expenditures amounted to 301.2 billion drams, while the expenditures of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure to 192.6 billion drams.  

According to him, the budget surplus resulted from incomplete execution of the spending and the higher than planned revenue collection rate, which in its turn affected the attraction of funds from external sources.

In particular, instead of the planned 133.4 billion drams, credits worth 68 billion drams were attracted, and 81.4 billion drams were used to repay credits instead of the planned 90.5 billion drams. ($1 - 402.18 drams) -0-